Caught in the Web: milemeter.com

Fed up with car insurance industry rigmarole, Hollywood Heights resident Chris Gay founded the first company in the nation to provide auto coverage by the mile. “I was a frustrated consumer who knew we could do it better,” he says. Log onto milemeter.com, enter your address, age, vehicle description, and approximate annual travel, and you will get a per-mile quote in less than two minutes, Gay says. It’s sort of like a pre-paid phone card for folks who drive up to 10,000 miles per year. They buy 1,000 to 6,000 miles worth of insurance at a time, with the option of buying more anytime, but if they run out, they’re driving uninsured. The concept may sound obvious — why would weekend-only drivers pay the same premium as someone who travels 30 miles per day? — but it took more than five years to research the plan and develop the business model, for state regulations to permit the new approach, and for investors and backers to sign on. Gay says the residual effects could potentially serve everyone. “We basically reward people for driving less. They benefit by saving money. The community could benefit, too.  There’s a host of environmental benefits from having fewer drivers on the road.”